A Baby Guinness is a small layered shot made to look like a tiny pint of Guinness, but it actually contains no stout at all.

What a Baby Guinness Is

  • A Baby Guinness is a shooter-style cocktail served in a shot glass.
  • It is named for its appearance: a dark “beer” body with a pale “foam head,” mimicking a miniature glass of Guinness.

What Makes a Baby Guinness

  • The base is coffee liqueur (most commonly Kahlúa or a similar brand), which gives the dark color and coffee sweetness.
  • The top layer is Irish cream liqueur (often Baileys), which provides a creamy, pale layer that looks like the stout’s foam head.

Basic Recipe & Ratio

  • Typical ratio: about 3 parts coffee liqueur to 1 part Irish cream, so the glass is roughly three-quarters coffee liqueur and one-quarter Irish cream by volume.
  • Many home recipes use around 1–1.5 oz coffee liqueur and 0.5 oz Irish cream per shot, depending on glass size.

How It’s Poured

  • Pour the coffee liqueur into a shot glass first to create the dark “body.”
  • Then very slowly pour the Irish cream over the back of a small spoon so it floats on top instead of mixing, forming a clean, creamy “head.”

Little Extras & Variations

  • Some bartenders tweak the flavor with different coffee liqueurs or flavored Irish creams, but the defining features are always the dark coffee base and creamy top.
  • It is especially popular around Irish-themed celebrations (like St. Patrick’s Day), but is now a common party shot year-round.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.